dismissal of workers
Take Starbucks, for example, which will unionize its first company-owned store in Buffalo, New York, in December 2021. About 250 stores have since followed suit, demonstrating workers’ enthusiasm for the union. But in the meantime, Starbucks has fired workers for their union affiliation. Sure, the company would say they were fired for breaking the rules, but that’s a blatant lie. After the lawsuit was dismissed, the workers had already had to be reinstated. However, the Memphis Seven was not the only victim of the retaliatory shootings. Other judges said workers in Michigan, Kansas and Missouri were unlawfully dismissed. Overall, Starbucks Workers United said more than 80 workers were laid off because of their activities.
campaign action
Starbucks has not admitted that these workers were fired for joining a union (which is protected by the National Labor Relations Act), but Josh Eidelson recently said that a former Buffalo store manager He reported that he was told by the department to punish union supporters. David Almond says he was handed a list of union supporters and told to chastise them in ways that apparently had nothing to do with their activities.
In one instance, a district manager asked Almond about a particular employee and refused to accept her positive assessment. “She is a long-term partner,” Almond quoted the district manager. “I’m sure she has something out there that can compete with her.”
And that’s the problem: if managers pay enough attention, they can always find something to pin in their workers…a reality that managers create.
Then there’s Amazon, where the independent union scored a shock victory at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York in April. Elections are underway in Southern California, and warehouse workers in Southern California are also calling for elections.
The online retail giant has laid off several activist workers on Staten Island. Union leader in Kentucky. Union supporter in Bessemer, Alabama. Retailers, wholesalers, and department store unions aimed to unionize warehouses. Two Maryland workers were involved in another independent organizing effort. (Amazon fired a group of unionized managers at its Staten Island warehouse.
“It’s widespread,” ALU attorney Seth Goldstein told NBC News. “Amazon’s MO is to fire everyone. All labor organizations. That’s why we need federal intervention.”
closed
Starbucks temporarily closed two stores last year, as workers in Buffalo organized. One was for renovations and the other was to be used as a training center (not how Starbucks typically trains its employees). The closure of Starbucks’ Ithaca store was also suspected of being linked to union activity. It was one of his three stores to unionize in the city, and it was also the only one to go on strike. city.
Trader Joe’s also closed a wine store in New York City just before workers at the store went public with their union campaign. Trader Joe’s also laid off workers in Brooklyn shortly after Union Drive went public. .
Salary increase and new benefits…but not for union members
In addition to a campaign of intimidation and dismissals against workers who support the union, Starbucks has revealed to thousands of store workers who are not yet unionized that they will suffer if they organize. The company has expanded new pay raises and benefits, but they are limited to non-union stores. It claims it cannot unilaterally change working conditions in stores that don’t have one (predictably, the company is dragging its feet on this in another effort to undermine unions), but unions Of course, Starbucks refused to give raises and benefits to all of its employees. This is also the subject of another of his NLRB complaints, with the labor board saying Starbucks is obligated to return wages and benefits to union members. (Overall, tThe NLRB has filed dozens of complaints against Starbucks, with one complaint potentially involving numerous individual violations of the National Labor Relations Act, and one case in Buffalo involving 200 It goes beyond the matter. )
Starbucks isn’t the only one running that tactic. Apple does the same. As stores in Maryland formed a union, and stores in Oklahoma (Oklahoma, seriously!) are getting ready to vote. The company announced new perks at other stores, but insisted the Maryland store would have to negotiate what other stores were automatically getting.
In a related move, the Amazon union accused Amazon of threatening to lose profits if workers joined the union, and the NLRB found the allegation to have merit.
Intimidation by manager
“Captive Audience” meetings have been a major union-busting technique widely adopted for decades. In those cases, the employee is called to a meeting to receive intimidation from the manager, either in groups or one-on-one with her. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has taken aim at the practice, calling the meeting “essentially compulsory.”
Starbucks employees across the country have described being harassed and reprimanded by their managers, and have recorded some of those interactions.
Workers at Starbucks and Amazon who are campaigning for labor unions also said they came under fire with anti-union text messages.
At an Apple store in Oklahoma City, management appointed workers to separate meetings to intimidate them away from union support. “There were probably over 100 conversations involving management talking to employees about unions,” one worker told More Perfect Union. As in, we’re flooding stores with extra managers to keep employees under constant surveillance. Nonetheless, when the votes were tallied on Friday, the union won big, 56-32.
Huge Union Busting Consultant
There is an entire industry of anti-union lawyers and consultants, profiting because these companies are trying to crush union organizing. Amazon spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021, and Starbucks used notorious anti-union law firm Little Mendelsohn to implement a strategy to delay or prevent elections.
“Titled “Union Prevention,” [Littler Mendelson’s] website status‘We help employers develop strategies to deal with union avoidance. “ So you can “detect early warning signs of organizing activity and minimize the risk of organizing campaigns,” writes labor scholar John Logan. “His Arthur Mendelson, one of the company’s founding partners, explains his approach to the union campaign: “Our clients pay a lot of money…. If they want aggression, they deserve it.”1997 profile washington post Little says “Notorious for using labor law complexities to thwart unionization and delaying negotiations indefinitely if unions win elections.”
It’s not hard to see how closely Starbucks is following the Little Mendelsohn playbook.
Comments
Post a Comment